The Name of the Easternmost Population of Common Nightingale Luscinia Megarhynchos

2008·1.4 MB·English

by  Edward C Dickinson

EdwardC. Dickinson 141 Bull. B.O.C.2008 128(2)
The name of the easternmost population of Common
Nightingale Luscinia tnegarhynchos
by Edward C. Dickinson
Received21 October2007
/
This population, which occurs from Iran and Kazakhstan east to China, was called
Luscinia tnegarhynchos golzii Cabanis, 1873, until Dementiev (1932) substituted the name
Luscinia hafizi Severtsov, '1872', as well as substituting Corvus corax subcorax Severtsov,
'1872' for Corvus corax lawrencei [sic] Hume, 1873. In supporthe referred to Severtsov (1875)
who claimed that his 'Vertical and horizontal distribution of Turkestan animals' had
appeared in December 1872. Dementiev's changes were adopted, by Ripley (1964) for the
nightingale and Vaurie (1962) for the raven, unchallenged until the claimed 1872
publication date was investigated by Stepanyan (1988), who concluded that 1873 (the date
on the wrapper) mustbe maintained.
However, as regards the nightingale, Stepanyan (1990: 529, 2003: 576) did not reverse
the change made by Dementiev. Nonetheless, a reversal is justified; Art. 23.9 of the
International code ofzoological nomenclature (ICZN 1999) is not applicable as the condition of
non-usage since 1899 is not met, because golzii was used until 1932. The name golzii first
appeared in the January 1873 issue of the Journalfiir Ornithologie. Whilst it is possible that
Severtsov's paper appeared prior to this, it is not certain and no firm evidence is available
as to when Severtsov's work became available. It is quite widely known that the dates of
publication of some early numbers of the Journalfiir Ornithologie are unreliable, see, for
example, Mathews (1920), but no evidence has yet been found that this issue was delayed
and one must therefore rely upon the 'specified date' (Art. 21, ICZN 1999), and revert to
using Cabanis' name.
The case ofthe 'raven' is quite different. Ivanov (1969) demonstrated that the holotype
of Corvus corax subcorax Severtsov pertains to Corvus ruficollis, making subcorax a synonym
ofthatmonotypicspeciesandleavingCorvuscoraxlaurenceiHume, 1873,available.Thiswas
discovered by Cees Roselaar and footnoted in Dickinson (2003), but overlooked by
Dickinsonetal. (2004), who were correctedby Dickinson &Wells (2006).
Acknowledgement
Grateful thanks toVladimirLoskotforhelpingwiththe2006 correctiontotheraven,providingtheIvanov
referenceandfortrackingdownthepaperbyStepanyan(1988).
References:
Cabanis,J. 1873. [Luscinia megarhynchosgolzii]. In ProtokollderXLIX. Momats-Sitzung./. Orn. 21: 73-80.
Dementiev,G.P. 1932.ContributionsaI'ornithologiedelaRussie.Alauda (2)4: 6-10.
Dickinson, E. C. (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore complete checklist of the birds of the world. Third edn.
ChristopherHelm,London.
Dickinson, E. C, Dekker, R. W. R. J., Eck, S. & Somadikarta, S. 2004. Systematic notes on Asianbirds. 45.
TypesoftheCorvidae. Zool. Verh. Leiden 350: 111-148.
Dickinson, E. C. &Wells, D. R. 2006. Corrigenda and addenda toSystematicnotes onAsianbirds41-48 in
Zoologische Verhandelingen Leiden350. Zool Meded. 80:217-218.
Hume,A. O. 1873. Ornithology. Pp. 153-304 in Henderson,G. &Hume, A. O. (eds.) Lahore to Yarkand: inci-
dentsoftherouteandnaturalhistoryofthecountriestraversedbytheexpeditionof1870underT.D.ForsythEsq.,
C.B. L.Reeve&Co.,London.
InternationalCommissiononZoologicalNomenclature(ICZN). 1999.Internationalcodeofzoologicalnomencla-
ture.TheInternationalTrustforZoologicalNomenclature,c/oTheNaturalHistoryMuseum,London.
Ivanov,A. 1969. [BirdsofthePamiro-Alay]. Nauka,Leningrad. [InRussian.]
EdwardC. Dickinson 142 Bull. B.O.C.2008 128(2)
Mathews,G. M. 1920. Datesofornithologicalworks.Austral.AvianRec.4: 1-27.
Ripley,S.D. 1964.FamilyMuscicapidae.Pp. 13-227inMayr,E.&Paynter,R.A.(eds.)Check-listofbirdsofthe
world,vol. 10. Mus.Comp. ZooL,HarvardUniv.Press,Cambridge,MA.
Severtsov,N. A. 1873. [VerticalandhorizontaldistributionofTurkestananimals]. Izv. Imp. Obshch. lyibiteley
estestvoznaniya,Antro. &Etno., Moscow Univ. 8(2): 1-157. [InRussian.]
Severtsov,N.A. 1875. [LettertotheEditor]. StrayFeathers3:420-431.
Stepanyan, L. S. 1988. [On dating of the workby N. A. Severtsov "Vertical and horizontal distribution of
Turkestananimals"].ZoologicheskyZhurnal67:293-296. [InRussian.]
Stepanyan,L. S. 1990. [Conspectusoftheornithologicalfaunaofthe USSR]. Nauka,Moscow. [InRussian.]
Stepanyan, L. S. 2003. [Conspectus oftheornithologicalfaunaofRussiaandadjacent territories (within theborders
ofthe USSRasahistoricregion)]. MoscowAkademikniga,Moscow. [InRussian.]
Vaurie,C. 1962. FamilyDicruridae. Pp. 137-157in Mayr, E. &Greenway,J. C. (eds.) Check-listofbirdsofthe
world,vol. 15. Mus.Comp. ZooL,HarvardUniv. Press,Cambridge,MA.
Address:Flat3,BolsoverCourt, 19BolsoverRoad,EastbourneBN207JG,UK.
©BritishOrnithologists'Club2008
Lectotype designation for Cinnyris proteus Riippell,
1840 (Nectariniidae)
by Frank D. Steinheimer
Received 14January2008
In 1845, Eduard Riippell (1845: 26) described the same sunbird taxon he had already
describedearlier. Riippell (1840: 91,maintextandfootnote;forpublicationdate seeSawyer
1952) had proposed a new species name Cinnyris proteus for what is today the south-east
Sudanese, Ethiopian, Eritrean and northern Kenyan form of the Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Chalcomitra senegalensis (Steinheimer2005a). In the protologue, nevertheless, Riippell (1840:
91)based thenamebothonanillustrationinLevaillant's (1813) Histoire naturelledes oiseaux
d'Afrique and on specimens ofhis ownwhich,believing them tobe similar, he described as
well (first footnote, p. 91). Since allbirds in Levaillant's work lack scientificbinomials, any
author giving a Latinbinomial by direct reference to any of Levaillant's birds acted as the
—
original describer see Arts. 12.2.1 and 12.2.7 ofthe International codeofzoological nomencla-
ture (ICZN 1999). BothLevaillant'sillustration (orspecificallythespecimenonwhichitwas
based [(ICZN 1999: Art. 74.4)] andRiippell'sownmaterialcited intheprotologueoiproteus
(Riippell 1840) are thus syntypic for thatname.
Subsequently, it was found that Levaillant's figure was of a different subspecies from
Riippell's specimens, and thatithad alreadybeennamedbyLinnaeus (1766: 186) as Certhia
gutturalis, albeit with an erroneous type locality 'Brasilia' (an error copied from the other-
wise very thorough description by Brisson 1760: 658-659, pi. 33, fig. 3). Today gutturalis
Linnaeus is accepted as a valid subspecies of Chalcomitra senegalensis (Gadow 1884: 91,
Rookmaaker 1989: 207, 327; R. J. Dowsett in litt. 13January 2008).
Cinnyris proteus Riippell, 1840 vs. Nectarinia cruentata Riippell, 1845
Five years later, Riippell (1845: 26-27, pi. 9) redescribed proteus based largely on the
same type material as in 1840, but under the different name cruentata Riippell, 1845.
Riippell's second description contains passages already given in 1840, clearly indicating
thatitindeed applies to the same taxon,butitnevertheless excludes reference to Levaillant
(1813) and his figure. Bonaparte (1850) was the first to recognise this, but he synonymized